Catemaco Nauticopa Review

The event attracted just about everyone from the region.

See more photos and videos in:

Catemaco Nauticopa 2011 (script in Spanish)

Photo of the two beauties is from Andrès in Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001736877535

Catemaco Colon

No, stupid, not that colon.

Christopher Columbus is blessed with the name Cristobal Colon in Spanish. He was the first "white " tourist to get anywhere near Mexico. He should have statues in his name in front of any tourist office in Mexico. Instead he is a disappeared person.

In his place are dozens of statues of so called "revolutionary" heroes in whose names millions of Mexicans were massacred.

Oh yeah, try finding a statue of Hernan Cortez, the second most important tourist to Mexico. There are no statues of him, that I have found.

Obviously, Mexicans do not care about the history of their tourism.

The photo is of a statue I found in Alvarado, uphill. Nearby are some great eateries including one who would like you to worship your ablutions.

Catemaco Bound

This is just about the death knell for Texas border to Veracruz and beyond  vehicular tourist traffic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/driving-mexicos-highway-of-death/2011/04/21/AFpdA7KE_story.html

The only good thing may be that those driving up from the south will decide to stay a year or so until that mess clears up.

Ironically, I think I've noticed a healthy upsurge of foreign tourists to Catemaco this winter season. Most arrive via Mexican tour buses, presumably after having flown to Veracruz or Mexico City. Last month, the Veracruz airport showed a significant 21% jump in foreign arrivals. I wish there were better statistics available such as rental car usage, toll road usage, hotel occcupancy, etc.

What the government provides is blown out of someone's nose. I missed  most of the 30 thousand arrivals for the non-brujo weekend and am now counting the supposed 60 thousand semana santa visitors,  half of whom will probably take the shortcut to the San Andrès beaches. Of course there is no clicker lying on that road  that might provide a good indicator.

The major very prominent new presence in the Catemaco area is cops. They are all over the place. Small ones, big ones, skinny ones and fat ones, even one on small heels, most dressed in full black on black battle gear and riding around on the back of pickups and sucking up the current extreme temperatures.

That someone buy them all a nice cold Coca Corona.

Catemaco's other option

A few years ago a rich dude from Cordoba, Veracruz, acquired 60 or more hectares in the nucleus of the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere, in the eastern mountains of Catemaco, an area so stripped of vegetation, even cows refused to live there.

Mr. Knopflmacher, assisted by the Mexican army, local ecologists and Mexican federal funds proceeded to plant upward of 75 thousand trees and by now the area is well on its way to recover some of the splendor lost over the last 50 years.

He now operates the equivalent of a dude ranch, offering cabins, horses, animal exhibits, communion with nature and isolation. There is no road access. Visitors ride horses or ATV's to get to their destination above the village of  Miguel Hidalgo.

I wish more rich dudes would discover the hills of Catemaco.

Recobrando la Biodiversidad Perdida from Ernesto Macip on Vimeo.

Catemaco Kidnap

You guessed it. It's been too damn hot to go anywhere lately and I project that attitude to continue until early June. So, of course, I become prolific.

Mexicans not living in the border areas are generally not concerned with narco killings. In most of the other states, including Veracruz, their pet peeve is extorsion and kidnapping.

An acquaintance/friend of mine operates a branch of one of the larger hardware building supply stores in Los Tuxtlas. He was kidnapped a few years ago and his family paid out a huge sum of pesos. Curiously, most everyone in Catemaco knows who did the job, but they have never been prosecuted.

He now is accompanied by a bodyguard wherever he moves, changed his house with 6 foot fences to a new one with 10 footers, has 3 live-in bodyguards to protect his family 24 hours a day, and has not eaten in a public restaurant in several years.

He says it's a cost of doing business, and he thinks he would have the same problem wherever he might move in Mexico.

Curiously his cost of business is not reflected in his pricing. He is extrordinarily competitive with other chains of building materials, which compared to the US, are robber barons.

Even more curious is that almost all kidnappings are male. Kids and wives are generally immune, except for the recent kidnapping of the mother of a grocery chain owner, by what turned out to be previous employees..

Catemaco is not New York City with dozens of roads leading in and out. Police road blocks and inspections are everywhere. No wonder that locals think that the ones guarding the roads are in cahoots with the kidnappers. Here and everywhere in Mexico.

Even more curious is the absence of newspaper coverage of kidnappings. I would say that possibly one in 5 is reported. And the ones reported rarely have a follow up.  Families of crime victims use the Mexican system of paying to suppress their names in news papers.

That is possibly why there are so many of them in Los Tuxtlas and elsewhere. Where else can you make money by not publishing?

Update: Yesterday 21 March, they found the body of the last local kidnap victim, see Catemaco Diario

La Panga

For many years, La Panga was Catemaco City's finest civilized entertainment locale for adults.

"Panga" means small ferry in Mexico, elsewhere it describes various fishes.

Built on stilts within the Catemaco lake, the place offered a great view, especially on moon lit nights. Live music on weekends stayed on the romantic side and the owners¡ selection of piped in music was remarkable. Their liquor selection was excellent, and after beating them over the head, they even began serving coffee in the winter. Regular clients were primarily from San Andrès plus a small cadre of Catemaco connoisseurs.

Historically Catemaco has had numerous "things" built on stilts along the lake shore, but they disappeared, until in the very late 1990's, the then owners of the Hotel del Lago received a federal concession to build in the lake across from the hotel.

Some time after 2005, the then municipal administration sued to revoke the concession, but lost. A while later the owner ran into legal problems and fled to the Yucatan while trying to sell the place for 1.5 million pesos. Deterioration set in, the music stopped and regulars disappeared.

Just before the Catemaco flood of 2010, half of a La Panga was decapitated and its pier and flooring became dangerous to tread.  Local rumors now claim the owner leased the place, or maybe she sold it to the former secretary of Catemaco tourism, famous for promoting discos with noise levels of rocket testing facilities, and his then boss, famous for trying to turn the Malecon into a beer orgy.

Significant reconstruction has been under way for several months and should be completed soon.

I sincerely hope La Panga retains its original format, and reverts to being one of Catemaco's most attractive landmarks.

See more of La Panga (mañana)

when it is finished